


What's Missing (and What's Not)

by Nochi



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, friendshipping, remembering that toph is blind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-02
Updated: 2014-07-02
Packaged: 2018-02-07 04:56:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1885884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nochi/pseuds/Nochi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Sokka sees something amiss, he fixes it. If he can't find something to fix it with, he invents it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What's Missing (and What's Not)

The "paper" was the first obstacle. It needed to be thin enough for the figures to come through, but not so thin that the awl punched right through. He started collecting strips of bark from the trees around from wherever they camped, testing them with the tip of his knife and usually tossing them aside in frustration a moment later.

When he finally, _finally_ got the right thickness (the trick was layers, he discovered, strips of bark from a southern Earth Kingdom tree with a thin layer of sap between them as a binder), he had to get the engraving right. The first time he messed up the strokes. The second time, after he carefully etched out each stroke without punching through the paper, and made sure it came through the other side, he flipped it over jubilantly...to find the characters reversed. He threw that one off of Appa's back with a frustrated growl, startling the others.

Finally, finally, _finally_ he got the strokes right, and the paper intact, and the embossed version was facing the right way. He checked it two, three times, right up until he sat next to Toph in front of the fire, still turning it over in his hands.

"Hey. I, uh. I did a thing."

"Is this the thing you've been throwing all over the place?" She didn't turn to face him, but tilted her head towards him, a difference he'd grown accustomed to.

"Heh. Yeah. Here, give me your hand."

She laid her hand in his, the easy trust of friends and teammates, and he set her fingers on the raised lines. He traced her fingers over each of the strokes in order, then laid her palm flat against the entire thing.

"Okay," she said, a small confused frown furrowing her brow. "It's...nice, I guess. What is it?"

"It's your name," he said quietly.

If he ever told anyone about the look that crossed her face, she would deny it and also probably punch him. So he kept it to himself, tucked it in the place in his heart where he kept the first time Katara Bended successfully and the first time Appa took off with him in the saddle. Toph slid her fingers out of his, tracing the characters almost reverently.

"This is the only thing your Bending can't really compensate for," he said. "I just thought...maybe...I mean, if it's - "

"If you can't figure out what you want to say now," she interrupted, smiling, "you could always write me a note."

**Author's Note:**

> I had this idea years and years ago, and I honestly cannot remember if I wrote/posted it before. So that's a thing.


End file.
